Health, Wellness and Tourism: healthy tourists, healthy business ...

The main purpose of the one-day visitors coming to the Czech Republic was shopping
(73.7%), business trip (11.5%), recreation and entertainment (6.6%) and visiting friends and
relatives (6.4%).
Health State and Aging - Implication for Tourism
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as ‘a state of complete physical,
mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease, or infirmity’. This broad
definition can be applied equally to developed and developing countries and to both genders.
Health is a cumulative state, to be promoted throughout life in order to ensure that the full
benefits are enjoyed in later years. Good health is vital to maintain an acceptable quality of
life in older individuals and to ensure the continued contributions of older persons to
society. 19
Health state is an important part of the standard of living and quality of life of inhabitants of
each country and is perceived as country´s development criteria. Healthy life expectancy
(HALE), defined by WHO as „Average number of years that a person can expect to live in
"full health" by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or
injury“ 20 is a indicator which is monitored also in the Czech Republic.
One of the common characteristic features of most European countries is demographic
ageing: it occurs mainly as a result of decreasing or low and stagnant natality, along with
decreasing mortality and related increasing life expectancy. 21 The share of children in the
population diminishes while the share of persons at ages 65 years or more grows. The age
preference index used for comparison of population age structures exceeds the value 100 (i.e.,
the number of persons over 64 years exceeds the numbers of children) 22 in increasing
numbers of countries including the Czech Republic (102.4 in 2007 and 105.1 in 2008). Due to
a marked decrease of natality in the early 1990s it has low proportion of children up to 15
years old (14.2 % in 2008), but it still belongs to countries with relatively low proportion of
persons in the age group of 65 or more years (14.7 % in 2008). The latter proportion will
further increase as the age limit 65 is crossed by the strong generation born after World War
II.
Another common characteristic of all European countries is the decreasing natality that
dropped also in countries where it was traditionally high. In several countries including the
Czech Republic a slow increase can be observed as the number of live born children steadily
grows since 2002, in 2006 the number of live born children per 1 000 inhabitants exceeded
again the value 10 and the value 11 in 2007. 23
The indicator of total fertility, i.e., the average number of children live born to one woman
during her reproductive period, does not reach the limit of simple replacement, i.e., the value
2.1 children per one woman, in any European country including the Czech Republic where
19 Ageing – exploding the myths. Ageing and Health Program (AHE). Geneva WHO, 1999, p. 1–21
20 WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS). Healthy life expectancy (HALE) at birth (years).
Downloaded from: http://www.who.int/whosis/indicators/2007HALE0/en/ (last accessed 7 March 2010)
21 European Health for All Database. Downloaded from: http://www.euro.who.int/hfadb (last accessed 7 March
2010)
22 The index is defined as the number of persons aged 65 years or more per 100 children aged 0–14 years.
23 European Health for All Database. Downloaded from: http://www.euro.who.int/hfadb (last accessed 7 March
2010)